Some Seniors Have Time of Their Lives at Expo

Lean, tan, blond, and 25, Jill Fulton was standing between the laxative salesman and the massaging pillow display and looking a little confused.

“I thought this was the Whole Life Expo,” she said, referring to the popular convention of health and fitness services that annually draws a young Southern California crowd. “But we kind of fell into the older sector.”

Fulton and her equally young, equally tan, equally fit companion had mistakenly wandered into just that--an exposition that drew more than 12,000 people older than 50 to the Los Angeles Convention Center on Saturday afternoon.

There was tap dancer Arthur Duncan doing a number he called “The Geritol Strut.” There were Tofu salesmen and Kraft cheese-ball peddlers. There were demonstrations of aerobics you can do without leaving your chair and there were bowling lanes, trampolines and bicycles built for two.

Thousands Attend

Amid it all wandered thousands of older people. They were on foot, in wheelchairs, aided by canes and younger friends. They were well aware of the lengths marketing people had gone to try to sell them practically everything. And they were enjoying every minute of it.

The event was the “Time of Your Life Expo,” a weekend-long sales pitch of more than 400 products targeted to older adults. The number of such products and services is growing rapidly as the group once derisively called “old geezers” becomes America’s fastest growing market.

There are more than 28 million people older than 65 in the United States today. By the year 2000 it is estimated that 25% of the country’s population will be senior citizens, more than double today’s percentage. The seniors are living longer and buying more and, as this weekend’s exposition attests, there is plenty around for them to buy.

But on Saturday, Mary Daigle and her friend, Evelyn Brady, skunked them. They said they had sampled three different kinds of juices, two pizzas, ice milk, frozen yogurt and liquid laxatives at booths around the Convention Center floor and hadn’t bought a thing.

“We’ve probably tasted a million things,” chuckled Daigle, 81, clutching three bags filled with product samples and the remains of a piece of oat and honey bread. “We didn’t even need to buy lunch. We managed pretty well.”

Not everything at the exposition was for sale, of course.

Volunteers from the American Red Cross offered free blood-pressure checks, cholesterol-level evaluations and glucose-tolerance tests. The Peace Corps was looking for a few good men and women. The National Orthotics Foundation was teaching good foot care. Political groups, environmental groups and social groups were busy recruiting members.

For Jill Fulton, the afternoon was not wasted. The expo made her realize that she won’t be young forever.

“It makes you realize, this is going to happen,” she said. “We’re planning ahead.”